Floor Statements

Offered By: Mr. Tancredo

Amendment No. 15: Page 62, after line 17, insert the

following:

Sec. 537. None of the funds made available by this Act may

be used to carry out the diversity visa program established

in section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8

U.S.C. 1153(c)).

Offered By: Mr. Tancredo

Amendment No. 7: Page 62, after line 17, insert the

following:

Sec. 537. None of the funds made available by this Act may

be used to administer any extension of designation made under

section 244(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act before

the date of the enactment of this Act with respect to

Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment will strike language added during the committee markup that prevents the U.S. Geological Survey from consolidating its older and obsolete mapping centers into a single consolidated national geospatial technical operations center.

According to the agency, the consolidation is critical to the USGS's ability to lead the Nation in facilitating and leveraging geospatial information services.

The centers USGS is attempting to consolidate were established many years ago to support a large field-based workforce spread out across the country when map production involved exhaustive field survey and was more manually intensive. That was fine back then, but it makes no sense now.

USGS, by their own admission, no longer manually collects and plots this kind of information, nor do they print a large volume of maps. Advanced technologies like remote sensing, we have all seen Google Earth, along with consumer demand for easy access to digital products have the USGS role.

The language in my amendment would strike needlessly imposing a 20th century paradigm on an agency that is desperately trying to make its way into the 21st century. This consolidation is not only saving taxpayers money, but it will create a more effective, efficient and modern USGS that is better prepared to work with partners in the State, local and private sectors.

In addition, it will make the agency more user friendly, a better place to respond to the needs of the most important customers, the U.S. taxpayer. This consolidation plan announced in September of last year has been rigorously reviewed twice, once by an internal USGS review team and again by the Interior Department Inspector General.

Both found the process leading to the decision to consolidate the facilities was open, fair and adequate. The mission of the USGS is to serve the Nation by providing reliable, scientific information to describe and understand the Earth, minimize loss of property from natural disasters, manage water, biological energy and mineral resources and enhance and protect the quality of life.

Its mission is not to maintain antiquated facilities or outmoded paradigms to serve the parochial interests of the State or the Nation.

Mr. Chairman, I do intend to withdraw this amendment, but I first would yield to my colleague from Colorado.

I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.

Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time. I hope we can work together on this issue.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. I would like to engage in a colloquy with the chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I had intended to offer an amendment that would prevent the use of funds to delay action on a petition to remove the so-called Preble's Jumping Mouse from the Endangered Species List.

I say so-called, because in December of 2003, a scientific study conducted by biologists and the Chair of the Denver Museum of National History's zoology department, concluded that the Preble's Mouse is, in fact, not really a valid subspecies at all.

Ms. Ramey's findings contradicted a 1950 study based on just three museum specimens. That was the basis of the original ``threatened'' designation. Ironically, the Arizona professor who conducted the study a half century ago himself now agrees that Ramey's research invalidates his findings.

In early 2005, in the wake of Ramey's study, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined the petition to delist the mouse was warranted, and the agency began the delisting process. Better late than never, although that belated policy shift is not much of a consolation to those who have coughed up an estimate $8 to $17 each year in compliance costs.

Mr. Chairman, I believe that Dr. Ramey's work and the courage of former Interior Secretary Gail Norton to take action on it were important steps in our effort to base conservation decisions on science instead of politics or emotion.

Unfortunately, however, progress is stalled. In January of this year, the bureaucracy questioned the Ramey study, and in February the agency pushed back a decision on the delisting petition for another 6 months.

Mr. Chairman, I feel the agency is falling back into the all too familiar analysis paralysis that has become the hallmark of the Federal resources agency.

Quick action on this petition is extremely important to the people of my congressional district. I hope we can work together to ensure the agency's bureaucrats do not successfully subject this delisting petition to death by delay.

I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

I appreciate the chairman's attention to this issue. It is an extremely critical one in my area.

Offered By: Mr. Tancredo

Amendment No. 8: Page 28, line 14, strike ``; and of

which'' and all that follows through ``Provided further,'' on

line 22.

Offered By: Mr. Tancredo

Amendment No. 8: Page 28, line 14, strike ``; and of

which'' and all that follows through ``Provided further,'' on

line 22.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor two great Americans, Norman and Marlyn Scheffel of Parker, Colorado. Norman and Marlyn are long-time champions of public involvement in the democratic process.

Norman and Marlyn have attended precinct caucuses ever since they moved to Parker, in 1973. Norman currently serves as a district captain overseeing five precincts.

The Scheffel's have always been active in the community. Marlyn has volunteered with Bible studies and has run programs to watch children so that mothers could have a day off.

The Scheffel's decades of dedication to grassroots politics is so legendary that they were the focus of a recent news story in the Rocky Mountain News.

Americans should look at Norman and Marlyn as examples of how everyday Americans should be engaged in the political process. I thank them for their commitment to America and wish them all the best in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking Chairman Hyde, Ranking Member Lantos, Africa Subcommittee Chairman Smith and my good friend and long time collaborator on Sudan related legislation and issues, Donald Payne of New Jersey.

Mr. Speaker, we all know the numbers: the genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2.5 million people. More than 100 people continue to die each day; 5,000 die every month.

Led and supported by their puppet masters in Khartoum, the Janjaweed militia have raped, pillaged, killed and according to this Congress, have committed acts of genocide against Darfur's innocent inhabitants.

Mr. Speaker, despite the efforts of this Congress and the numerous governmental and non-governmental organizations who are active on the ground in Darfur, the situation continues to deteriorate: atrocity crimes are continuing and people are still dying in large numbers from malnutrition and disease.

The humanitarian situation remains catastrophic, due to layers of aid obstruction, the lack of an overall humanitarian strategic plan, and the weakened state of displaced Sudanese. Refugees and internally displaced civilians (IDPs), a disproportionate number of them women, are in terribly weakened states, subject to sexual abuse and without adequate shelter. The numbers of at-risk civilians continue to increase. And as need far outstrips the ability of agencies to deliver aid, localized famine is feared.

To be perfectly frank, I find it reprehensible, Mr. Speaker; simply reprehensible that the international community has failed to act on the promises made after the Holocaust that never again would genocide occur on this planet.

While I stand here today as a Member of Congress and applaud my colleagues for their efforts, I also stand here outraged that the United Nations and NATO have allowed despicable war criminals in Khartoum, the same criminals that once provided safe harbor to Osama Bin Laden and as of Monday, have denied a senior U.N. official from entering Darfur, to dictate the method by which the international community may respond to acts of genocide.

Despite my sadness Mr. Speaker, despite my outrage, I come to the floor today slightly uplifted over the fact that later today this body will vote on and hopefully pass H.R. 3127, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act.

As I have stated repeatedly during the various markups of this legislation, the final version of this bill is certainly not what I had hoped for; despite the best efforts of my staff and others, there is no authorization of force language; the sanctions could have been stronger; there was no mention of a no fly zone; the list goes on.

Despite these shortcomings, Chairman Hyde's legislation provides the President with the necessary authorization authority to help alleviate the suffering of the people of Darfur;

It denies entry to U.S. ports to certain cargo ships if the Government of Sudan fails to take specified peace measures in Darfur; prohibits, with waiver authority, U.S. assistance to a country that violates U.N. Security Council Resolutions that prohibit military sales to Sudan; and while the bill provides the President with the authority to direct our Ambassadors to NATO and the U.N. to take various action to stop the genocide in Darfur; and while those Ambassadors have acted accordingly; as I mentioned earlier, both of those organizations have been sluggish and as of now ineffective in taking proactive action to prevent further atrocities.

Mr. Speaker, no matter how stringent this piece of legislation could have been, it would not have ended the killing, the rape and the pillaging that continues to occur in Darfur.

While the President has taken some action to alleviate the suffering of innocent Darfurians, some is simply not enough when a genocide is occurring on our watch.

As I conclude, it is my hope that this piece of legislation sends a signal to Khartoum that this Congress will not stand by idly while the innocent are slaughtered; in addition, I hope the President will increase his pressure on the international community to take decisive action to end the genocide and bring those responsible to justice.

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 66 I was inadvertently detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a fallen soldier from Aurora, Colorado, Sergeant Dimitri Muscat. Sergeant Muscat died on February 24 in Balad, Iraq. He was just 21 years old.

Sergeant Muscat was born in Russia and came to Colorado when he was only 12 years old. According to his stepfather, serving in the Army to defend America was something Dimitri had wanted to do since he was young--and he joined the Army at 17. Dimitri was serving as a gunner on his unit's tank when he died.

Dimitri is survived by his mother, stepfather and his sister.

Sergeant Muscat was assigned to C Company, 1st Batallion, 8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division based in Fort Carson, Colorado. He was in his second tour in Iraq when he died.

Dimitri served his adopted country with courage and valor, fighting for the cause of freedom.

The American and Iraqi people owe Dimitri and his family a great debt of gratitude for his service and his sacrifice.

We extend our heartfelt sympathy and sincere condolences to all who knew and loved Dimitri.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a man who has been a great asset to the health care community in Colorado. After 31 years with the Colorado Health and Hospital Association where he served as president for 21 of those years Mr. Larry Wall is moving on to undertake new challenges.

During his tenure as president of CHA, Larry helped to increase the association's stature and reputation as the primary source of credible information about hospitals in Colorado. In addition, Mr. Wall worked to reaffirm CHA's commitment to public health and expand its community based role.

Over the past 31 years Colorado health care systems have seen vast changes. During Larry's tenure, he has been a part of changes that have made Colorado a leader in public accountability. In fact, while Wall served at CHA, Colorado hospitals became the first in the nation to make mortality data for individual hospitals public. Contributions such as this demonstrate how valuable an asset Mr. Wall is to the Colorado health care community. I wish the best to Mr. Wall in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a talented young woman from Highlands Ranch, CO, Ms. Courtney Zablocki.

Courtney will proudly represent these United States of America in the 20th Winter Olympiad currently underway in Torino, Italy. Courtney will be competing as a slider in the women's luge events during this Olympiad.

Courtney has been training as a slider for the past 13 years. She will be competing in her second Winter Games. As a member of the United States Olympic women's luge team in Salt Lake City, Courtney finished 13th. In the final World Cup event before the Olympics Courtney finished in a promising fifth position.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to wish Courtney Zablocki a safe, successful and enjoyable Winter Olympics as she represents our country in Italy.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take a moment and pay tribute to two outstanding young women from Littleton and Aurora, CO. Jenny Graves and Ashlee Mann graduated from AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps 10-month program in Perry Point, MD.

Through this program these young women learned the critical role that AmeriCorps*NCCC plays in disaster relief. These young women now have a stronger understanding of the role that volunteers play in assisting areas affected by natural disasters.

Mr. Speaker, it is my distinct pleasure to honor Jenny Graves and Ashlee Mann and their achievements here today, and wish these young women all the best in their future endeavors.

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, we have had a lot of debate on this bill, of course, over, I don't know, the last 24 hours it seems like or more; and it has oftentimes been punctuated with the use of the word ``comprehensive'' and people complaining about the fact that they do not think it is comprehensive, or at least comprehensive enough. But that has been a euphemism most of the time for the phrase ``guest worker.'' That is what people want in this bill in order to make it ``comprehensive.''

Let me suggest to you it would do nothing, absolutely nothing, to make this bill comprehensive. A bill designed to deal with border security and internal enforcement of our laws in no way helps us accomplish those goals by including anything like a guest worker program.

Hence, I believe that this bill, as it was written and as it has been amended, and hopefully with the amendments that are going to be accepted at the end of the discussion of the bill, I believe it has become a comprehensive bill. Not totally comprehensive. There are certainly things I would like to see in it. Congressman Deal's issue of birthright citizenship, I wish that were in there, and a couple of other things that we will continue to work on. But to a great extent, it begins, for the first time, to actually deal with a problem in what I think is a comprehensive way, and I mean it in this form.

We have a supply and a demand problem. The supply problem is coming across the border. We are in this bill doing something very specific about that with the inclusion of the amendment, with the passage of the amendment, to build some barrier along at lease 700 miles of our southern border. I hope we continue with that, by the way, along the entire border, to the extent it is feasible, and the northern border we could start next. That is dealing with the supply side of this problem.

The demand side of the problem is, of course, the job magnet that is created by people here who provide jobs for people who come across the border illegally, and in many cases do so knowingly. And I want to commend the Speaker of the House, I want to commend the leadership of my party, I want to commend the chairman of this committee, and I want to commend my colleagues on this side of the aisle for doing something that is difficult.

We are going up against economic interests that are extremely powerful. Many of them, of course, have been supporters of Republicans for years, the Chamber of Commerce and the rest. We have actually said to them, you know what, we are going to put our Nation's security and the importance of border security above all of these other issues and above the economic interests you bring to bear because so many of you are making so much money off illegal aliens. You are exploiting them. We know that this is happening, and we are going to try to put a stop to it, because in this bill we actually have something called internal enforcement.

We are going to do something about employer enforcement of the law. We are going to give them the opportunity and the tools to do that.

Again, I wish it were better. I wish we had a shorter period of time for the law, for checking the Social Security numbers to go into effect. But, nonetheless, it is there. We have made enormous strides with this bill, enormous, I must admit to you more than I had anticipated we could do, certainly, in this term of the Congress. But I am happy that we are here.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson).

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I intend to withdraw the amendment. The issue that I was bringing to the table with regard to this sanctuary city has been dealt with to a significant extent by my colleague, Mr. Campbell, from California. In that light, I will in fact withdraw my amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Chairman, the gentleman knows that I have often approached this particular issue with a certain degree of cynicism, perhaps the same amount as he is expressing right now in terms of its prospects.

All I know is this: this is what I have before me today. This is what this House is being asked to address and to accomplish. That one thing, if nothing else happens, I am happy to have been able to get it to this point.

I am truly hopeful, and I recognize full well the gentleman is right that there are major obstacles to getting this beyond this point, but that is a fight to fight tomorrow. Today we are here, it is a good bill, and I certainly hope that we can pass it.

Mr. Speaker, today we will be taking up the PATRIOT Act, the extension thereof, and it is important that we do so. It is important for the security of the country.

It is ironic in a way that, as we address this issue and as we debate whether or not we need this kind of internal security mechanism in order to make Americans feel better about themselves and in fact provide that security, there is some irony if the fact that the perimeters, our borders, are as porous as they are and as undefended as they are.

Tomorrow we will take up a bill that will hopefully begin to close those gaps also and begin to defend that perimeter, for without it having a PATRIOT Act is like putting a very expensive apparatus in your home to determine whether or not you have an invader inside the house while you are leaving your front and back doors wide open. That is the problem we have. Hopefully, it will be solved tomorrow with the bill we have before us, the Sensenbrenner bill, to begin the process of securing our border and securing our future.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to applaud the accomplishment of Keara Sammons of Aurora, Colorado. Keara Sammons won the individual high school women's cross country State title. Keara was assisted by her teammates--Lisa Allen, Jeanette Ames, Stephanie Boehm, Steven Bolger, Lindsey Dezman, Nick Donkoh, Grant Duin, Eiger Erickson, Stasia Erickson, Alexander Evans, Luke Fischer, Zachary Fuller, Jennifer Gamboa, Jeanna Hanna, Michael Harris, Corey Jefferson, Michael Kasberg, Sarah Lyle, Andrew Matz, Daniel Mickey, Brittany Nelson, Miriam Olin, Hollee Pentico, Kallie Powers, Stephen Reagan, Matthew Robida, John Sawvel, Matthew Schulz, Matthew Sewick, Erica Smith, Thomas Smith, Erin Stratton, Carter Turnbull, Lauren Vail, Jacob Varey, Casey Vockrodt, Chanel Williams, Teddi Wold, Aaron Wood, Megan Woodworth and Eric Young. Keara and these student-athletes were coached by Greg Weich, Brian Manley, Jeff Bliven and Amy Fox.

Keara continued the impressive streak of Buffalo women who have won 6 of the past 7 State individual women's cross country titles. Keara won by more than 20 seconds, however, her victory was not enough for the Smoky Hill Buffalo girls to win the team title, the first time in 4 years they have not won.

The Buffalos have trained intensively while maintaining a standard of academic excellence throughout the season. It is my pleasure to honor their championship, and to wish them all the best in their future endeavors.